June 27, 2018: Hriday Hazarika claimed the top spot and won gold in men’s 10m air rifle at SSF Junior World Cup in Shul, Germany on Monday. Earlier, Elavenil Valarivan had won gold in women’s 10m air rifle and moved up India’s tally of medals to eight, which includes four gold, one silver, and three bronze medals.

India’s young shooting brigade bagged their second gold medal of the day after Hazarika shot a score of 248.7 in the final to finish just 0.3 points ahead of silver medallist Maximilian Ulbrich from Germany and China’s Gangfeng Fu, who won bronze with 226.9. The other Indian in the final, Divyansh Singh Panwar, was the second to be eliminated with a total score of 141.8.

In the final, the Indian teen maintained a consistent show with only three scores of under 10, one of which came on the last shot. But despite that 9.9, he had just enough to pip the German close on his heels. Earlier in the day, Elavenil Valarivan displayed an impressive performance in the women’s 10m air rifle and bagged gold for India.

Hazarika had led the pack right from the qualification, topping the chart with a score of 627.1. Panwar had qualified in seventh place with 625.9. There were two other Indians in the fray, Shahu Tushar Mane (622.3) and Sunmoon Singh Brar (607.8). India now has eight medals in the competition, which consists of four gold, one silver, and three bronze medals.